Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be formally sentenced to death by a federal judge, likely as soon as next month.

At a brief status hearing this morning with the trial teams, U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. announced he will issue an order “shortly” setting a date.

On Friday, a jury ordered the terrorist to be executed for the April 15, 2013, murders of Martin Richard, 8, of Dorchester, and Lingzi Lu, 23, of China. He was not present at today’s conference.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said 20 of the more than 260 bombing victims so far have asked to address the court when Tsarnaev, 21, is sentenced.

He anticipates the proceeding can be concluded in one day.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers wanted to delay sentencing until at least August while they work on post-trial motions, but Weinreb told O’Toole, “I think there’s a very strong interest in finality in this case and 90 days seems excessive.”